Monday, April 5, 2010

A demonstration against the Tribeca Film Festival's choice to feature the movie "Ticked Off Trannies With Knives" will take place in NYC tonight. The movie promotes transphobia and makes light of the rape and violence all too often directed at transwomen. In addition to the offensive title of the movie, the film portrays transwomen as being performers.

Below is a trailer for the movie (Warning - Highly offensive and violent material).

15 comments:

leonard
said...

This movie is in no way transphobic. It's camp, for sure, but it's not offensive to anyone who is in on the joke. How about directing resources and attention to combat REAL homophobia and transphobia that ordinary people face day to day.

Why would you attack a Gay man for making a film about violence against the Trans? You may find it offensive but I find it liberating to know that such a topic is being broached in an accessible way at such an esteemed film festival. Remember not everyone found TransAmerica watchable (though I liked it fine). The youth who were raised phobic are not going to sit through Flawless or Priscilla QOTD.

I'm with these fine folks. You should explain why it's transphobic because the trailer looks like the transgendered women are standing up for themselves in this film. Also, I'm not sure it's making light of rape and violence just taking a comedic approach. It could have been romantic, thriller, or even sci fi but all with the same morals.

Not transphobic at all. Get this off your site. Offensive title? When was 'tranny' disbarred, because I never got the memo. And as for being performers? There are clubs in SF devoted only to trannies (and sometimes hot-tranny-messes) and hell-yes they know how to perform. I--along with many I can only assume--only find your pointing fingers to be of any phobia going on here.

I won't be taking it off and I am surprised at those who don't find it offensive. Not that I think that much more needs to be explained but GLAAD has taken issue with the film and you can read that here: http://www.glaad.org/calltoaction/032510

Actually, QU, GLAAD were working as advisors for the film, and then turned on it in the final weeks. I don't know the dirt on why they did so, but unless you've seen the film, I think it's ridiculous to label it transphobic. Possibly, it's exploitative, I don't know for sure, because I haven't seen it. But a horror/comedy film in homage to the blacksploitation films of the 70s is not going to have a documentary feel. As such, if it deals with trans issues in any way, it's going to HAVE to make light of them because THAT'S THE DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC OF THE GENRE. Maybe there are parts of the trans community who aren't ready to see this type of film, but there are simultaneously plenty of parts of the trans community who are happy to see a revenge flick starring transfolk.

(Source on GLAAD's involvement with the film: The Tribeca Film Festival responded in a statement: “The filmmakers provided a copy of this film to GLAAD in February, and for weeks the organization had been supportive to the filmmakers. In fact, GLAAD representatives advised the film’s producer, director and cast on how to describe the film to its core constituency.” http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/protests-and-defense-of-a-transgender-comedy-at-tribeca-festival/)

My point being, GLAAD has been internally inconsistent on this subject. I know you like to support their work, and I generally stand by them, too. But you might want to examine this kerfuffle a little bit before lining up with their position here.

I don't get this protest at all. It's supposed to be a jokey trashy exploitation film. It's not intended to reflect reality. Anyone who has been picked on likes to fantasize about revenge. It's not like they used a bunch of straight guys in wigs. In the tradition of Zena, Kill Bill, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer it's foxy girls kicking ass! No sane person would see this film and think that all transgender women are violent killers.

And as for the word "tranny" it's a slang term but it does not have a history as a derogatory term. Until a few years ago I never even heard anyone use that term but transgender women and their friends. There are so many better targets for protest.

Oh, please. Our fucking society is so uptight now and so afraid and so fucking PD. Give me a break...this shit is FUNNY and it's DUMB. It's a cheesy John Waters style movie. This is not offensive...I applaud you for taking a stand and saying that this needs to be looked at, but from what I can see from the trailer, the movie is a piece of garbage that is funny and not violent. I mean, did you actually WATCH the scenes? Please. Bravo for questioning this kind of stuff but you are barking up the wrong trans-tree on this one.

I think we, the trans community, are way too uptight about thing like this. Why be upset over a film a gay man made about transphobia? Not all transwomen and men are offended by the word 'trannie'. Stop speaking for me, please. There are bigger issues to take care of then fighting ourselves or nothing. The ignorance portrayed by the protestors is embarrassing.

I am not sure about transphobic, but I definitely do not appreciate trashy, armpit comedy, that is exploitative of transpeople. Funny, haha, a bunch of trannies got beat to near death then they are going to go vigilante on the beaters. Funny, depends on your humor and sensibilities. Exploitative, extremely even by your own admission, and since when is being exploited ok? So should we start making exploitative movies about women and minority racial groups again? When did exploitative become ok?

The very word tranny/trannie is transphobic. Why? A whole bunch of reasons, but the main one is this: When you use it in a sentence, you are replacing "man" or "woman" in the sentence. Just by saying "tranny" you are redefining the person so labelled as not man, not woman, but this third thing. Well and good if they think of themselves that way. Extremely unpleasant if they don't. Using the word in a film title is irresponsible at best, since it's encouraging the use of the term.

Ask yourself this: if you were gay and it were a film with the f-word in the title, would you be bothered? If the answer is yes, then you ought to be bothered by this.Screaming Queens Entertainment says:"And as for the word "tranny" it's a slang term but it does not have a history as a derogatory term."

Except for the part where it was coined as one... and had been in use as one ever since... and is still one now. It's never NOT been derogatory.

GLAAD doing an about-face is no surprise; that's the long standing GLB-and-oh-yeah-t-if-we-can-gain-from-it issue, a.k.a. following which way the wind blows if there is a tactical advantage for their real concern, which is cis gays. Usually it's by way of just ignoring t* issues but this time it has included active cis gay appropriation of those identities and the trailer intentionally raised the stakes by name-dropping recent murders. It's nothing new and I long ago learned to assume the other hand of those who claim to be allies holds a dagger that they will thrust into my back the moment doing so is advantageous for them.

The "haven't seen it" bull shit doesn't wash here: it's derailing. It's claiming we can't possibly be right about the cat in the bag unless we've seen it out of the bag. Of course, once it is, you've accomplished your (IMHO obvious) goal getting it out there and rendering any objection moot.

I, personally, found the trailer to be hysterical. As a bigender person planning on chest reconstruction, I could easily in the future become a victim of hate and violence. Yes, hate crimes are a very real and very serious issue, but this movie actually looks funny. It's over-the-top. It's ridiculous. But it isn't advocating violence against transsexuals. It's using humour as a means to speak against it. I mean, it's a movie where trans-women are the HEROINES. Yes, it's downright campy and ridiculous, but you know that immediately from the title. Maybe I have no taste, but I really don't think this is something to get up in arms about. Were I in the area, I'd go to see it, not to protest it.

It's a comedy and it is violent. If you don't like that combination, then don't watch it. Let's get indignant about real issues and try to conserve what has kept us going through all the discrimination; namely our sense of humour. It has been a powerful tool in breaking down fear of LGBTs and being able to laugh doesn't mean you cannot be serious about issues too.